Posts tagged “chin up”

As i was told my lats are too small in my last straps session, i guess it’s time to punish these babies!

so what exercises are good for lats, and furthermore, what exercises can you do without having to go to the gym…

well the very first thing that comes to mind is pull ups. if you dont have a pull up bar then get the hell off my blog because quite frankly, you missed the buffness train. it costs £10 at Argos, no excuses!

pulls of any kind are good for lats, but i found the narrow ones target them more than wide ones which focus more on upper shoulder muscles like the teres.

here’s an old video i made:

as for the grip, it’s good to experiment to find out which targets your muscles best and challenges you more. once you’re comfortable w doing 3 x 10 reps (if you’re looking for volume like me, not to failure), then you can add weights. no need for any kit there tho a belt is nice and plush. a simple backpack will do, load it up and feel the burn.

before i get on to using a little more equipment, i found this exercise online:

if you skip to 2’20 you can see he is doing a version of the barbell ab roll that doesnt actually involve a barbell but merely a towel. i will try this one and report. generally this exercise is used for flexors/abs and core more generally, so am curious to see how it involves lats. (tho i guess lats are synergists in this move always, but perhaps the slightly different angle and fact that you have to press down on the floor might help)

so what next then?

– barbell pullovers: all you need for this is a loaded barbell and a (hopefully solid) coffee table or similar that can act as a bench. the key thing is to work w arms as straight as possible, tho a slight bend in the elbow is acceptable, depending on shoulder flexibility you will be able to go lower.
to give you an idea until i get my own video up here:

this can be done w bent elbows too, tho i found my triceps engaged more w bent arm, and thus the lats weren’t as isolated.

– no name band lateral pulldown of sorts (it hasn’t got a name yet): an interesting exercise was suggested to me: using the chinup bar, swing a theraband over, kneel under the bar, grab each end of the band w arms extended straight over head, and pull down to your sides, keeping arms in line w the body in the frontal plane.
i will upload a video of this move tonight. however, i found that my teres muscles engaged a lot more than my lats while i did that exercise, to the point where i am not even sure that the lats engage at all! so i’d say, try it out but check what muscles you are working.

so then, that’s a couple of things to try out without having to pay the dreaded gym membership.

but. the gym does bring a couple of exercises that are fun and give a bit of variety:

– cable straight arm pulldowns:

self explanatory really. to make sure the lats are as isolated as possible, try to keep correct form the whole time. a similar exercise w bent arms is used for triceps isolation so keep these arms straight!

– cable pulldown:

there again form is important do not arch and lower the bar til it touches your chest. i find it hits harder if i dont let my arms go back to 100% full extension and keep everything under tension throughout the whole set. narrow grip can be used too, i find wider is harder!

that’s it for now. just a few lat basics to keep us going. i will update when i think of more exercises.